Roots:The Lord of the Rings (the name Stormcrow) 'Ratkaisers' presumably take their origin from legends of a Rat King (and may have had their name changed due to the concept being used in Rat Trap?). The Doctor mentions Mrs Beeton and Fanny Craddock.

Intertextuality: The Doctor mentions "Coffin loaders", encountered by his second and third incarnations in Platt's Companion Chronicle The Three Companions)

Dialogue Triumphs: The Doctor on Leela: "She's a huntress by birth. Raised on the slopes of Mount Olympus by a tribe of itinerant girl guides."

"Bad feelings are like bus timetables, not something that you should rely on."

"The universe rolls beneath me, too. I ride on the footplate of time."

Continuity: The Stormcrow is a carrion feeder, devouring dying or dead worlds, circling them for millennia, on their dark side. Every thousand years one of its kind come to Earth to taste it and see if its time has come. Symbiotic creatures which live under the Stormcrow's wings are called 'No Things' by the people of Garaldros Beta.

Professor Gesima Cazalet has been studying galaxy Messier 91 for the past five years, having discovered a recurring 'blip' of a flypast just after 4am every night.

Alban Island is not the main island in its chain. Main Island (the actual main island) has a university (where Peggy Brooks is the Director) and hospital Mount McKerry observatory is twelve thousand feet above sea level and has an eight-metre mirror telescope. At the foot of the mountain was a village.

Leela says the Sevateem believe that if you die with your eyes open your spirit will forever be condemned to wander

The TARDIS' power cables are universally compatible.

Links: Leela refers to her misunderstanding of the nature of the Doctor's jelly babies and her people falling under a false god (The Face of Evil). The Doctor mentions his expertise at making crepes (Hornet's Nest: The Sting in the Tale)

Unrecorded Adventures: Along with coffin-loaders (see: Intertextuality), the Doctor refers to creatures he calls "Rat Kaisers.

The Bottom Line: "Something found you here, something from the darkest corner of night."

Lovecraftian ("there are things in the universe you're not ready to know about") without being so obvious. After a less-than serious finale to Tom Baker's debut audio season, something more of the Hinchcliffe mould, and a welcome change it is. Ann Bell (a name too long separated from Big Finish dramas) is well cast as Gezima, Chase Masterson is an effective Peggy and the whole thing is appropriately doom-laden. Most welcome.